TSA News

“Applesauce woman” Nadine Hays still fighting the TSA

Hays is the woman who was arrested, handcuffed, strip-searched, and jailed after the TSA decided she was too uppity. Hays had been escorting her ill, 93-year-old mother through security at the Burbank airport in 2009 when the TSA decided to confiscate the applesauce and yogurt the elderly woman needed to eat during the journey. In trying to retrieve her stolen items, Hays was accused by the TSA of hitting an agent. Prosecutors later charged her with battery.

A year later, in April of 2010, a judge threw the case out of court. Hays had won (though not before her mother could savor the victory with her; she had died a few weeks before).

Hays then decided to sue the TSA.

But apparently she’s representing herself in court, something that few of us mere mortals can do (hats off to the indefatigable Jon Corbett, however, who has managed to do it). This self-representation has led to a lengthy, unwieldy complaint and an increasingly frustrated judge.

*2015 UPDATE: Still no word from TSA on public comments*

The public comment period on the TSA's electronic strip-search scanners and "pat-downs" closed on June 25, 2013. That public comment period had been ordered by the courts, an order the TSA ignored for almost two years before it finally complied. The agency must issue a report on the many thousands (or more?) of comments it received. Yet here it is 2015 and still no report. If it ever complies with the requirement to issue that report, TSA News will let you know.

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